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 Dear Parents/Carers
Thank you for showing interest in St Mary Magdalene Academy, the visionary new school for Islington.
The choice of school is a vital one for parents and pupils and I hope that the prospectus and associated information on this website about our new Academy will help you as you come to a decision about the education of your son or daughter.
If you choose the St Mary Magdalene Academy, you will be signing up to be part of what we believe will become an inspirational community of learning and achievement. However, you won't be signing up on the basis of being impressed with our buildings, our staff, our pupils or our results – at the time of writing we don't have any!
Our classrooms, laboratories and sports hall are being built – and our staff recruited – even as you read this. If you choose our school for your child, he or she will be joining a small but perfectly formed community of education which will grow slowly over their time with us as secondary students.
So, in the absence of exam results or value added figures, let me instead explain why I applied to be the Principal. This school will build on success. St Mary Magdalene Primary School, which will continue as part of the Academy, has a long tradition of educational excellence in serving the whole community, and in recent years has been a leader in academic, sporting and artistic excellence.
This school will be unique, not only Islington's first Church of England secondary school, but one specializing in Humanities and Global Citizenship at the start of a century when the world is becoming ever more inter-dependent. The education we provide will take place within a global context, establishing the school as outward looking and culturally diverse. Our first international partner will be No 37 Middle School Chongqing China – a school I already know well from my previous Headship – and we will soon establish friendships with other schools in the developing world.
This school will be an all-through school, enabling us to take the best of classroom practice from both primary and secondary phases into our new Academy, helping us to integrate primary and secondary education and smoothing the sometimes daunting transition which can set some children back a step.
At secondary level, our school will grow slowly from just one year group (Year 7) in 2007, adding an extra year group each September, until it is complete with a Sixth Form in 2013. This will be a unique experience for the first intake, who will be the senior pupils from the very start! This school will be brand new, with fantastic facilities designed to deliver 21st century education. This will enable me to establish a curriculum and teaching and learning practices which will be at the leading edge of current thinking. State of the art ICT facilities, for example, will ensure that your child will use ICT as a key tool for learning.
For all these reasons, it will be an exciting place to work and learn!
Please read our FAQs (frequently-asked questions) pages – these are questions I have been asked by parents in recent months. I hope they answer your questions. I look forward to welcoming your child as one of our new Year 7 students next year.
Paul Hollingum
Principal |
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